<p>Chedva- I agree with you 100%. My problem is that my daughter thinks that she should be taking the class and is willing to risk the extra stress and possibilty of causing her other classes to suffer. I however, think that she should go the Honors route with the US history and since she also wants to take AP Stats (which will be her 7th class) then take the stats. She will by no means be "slacking off" as she will have 6 honors classes and the AP Stats (even though AP stats is considered an easy AP). She will take AP Calc senior year.</p>
<p>As a teacher I can say that the key to AP is making sure it tries to mimic a college level course but without making it more damanding than the college course. In our district classes are 57 minutes per day which is practically double what they would be in the typical 3 credit class in college not including the fact that it is usually for 18 weeks in highs school versus 15 in college. So in theory much of what would be homework time in college could be class time in high school. Teachers need to adjust that. On the other end for some of the science classes high schools get less time than college so there is probably more homework to equate to college rigor. The goal is to give students enough rigor so that most A students get a 5 on the AP. More than that is a power trip.You need to know the teacher, and yourself and to look at this in the contect of your ovrall load etc. I would agree that if you have an otherwise heavy schedule and good EC's one course will not matter.</p>
<p>If you say that she wants to go to selective colleges, then she is going to have to take APUSH. I am a junior in high school this year, and had to go through all of the same things last year. Only I am doing AP Calculus this year, instead of Stats. AP History is not as bad if you have some kind of interest in history, and manage yourself. It definitely depends on the teacher, and mine is pretty reasonable. But you can't expect to take the "easier" classes but still be competitive with the kids who faced the workload of the AP's. It's about seperation, and knowing where you are.</p>
<p>If she doesn't think she will be able to manage it, don't sacrafice all of her classes for the sake of 1. Do what you can handle and accept that.</p>
<p>My D just got into MIT EA. She took a ton of AP classes, including all the sciences, CalcBC, English, Japanese, and APUSH. She received the only B+ in her HS career in this class, the first semester (it improved to an A after I worked with her on what the issues were.) While she is not a history kid, her reason for taking APUSH was to go for the challenge... word on campus was that the Honors class was not nearly as interesting in content. Had she wanted to take the class to look good, I would have advised her to forget it.</p>
<p>College Admit people want to see rigor, achievement, passion and balance. The myth about having to flog yourself to death just to pad your resume is just that. I think your D needs to be honest and authetic about what she wants out of her academic career, and take courses that she loves (sure take the hardest courses she loves) and do well in them. The rest should be to meet the requirements so she can graduate with the best grades, and satisfied that she did the best she could. I fully agree with other posters' suggestions about looking for alternative AP classes of interest. I was amazed at the diversity of AP classes offered at D's HS that she never even mentioned, because she was single minded about pursuing all the "classic" AP courses. She would have loved to take more other AP classes but there were requirements to fill, and only so many hours in a day.</p>
<p>Take a look at your D's transcript vs the AP courses that ARE offered at her HS. This is what College Admit people do. See if you can honestly say that she has taken a challenging load in the context of her opportunities. If you can say yes, just ditch APUSH and move on. If you can not, consider if there are other AP courses that she would enjoy and do well in, that can help make her record look stronger. Taking APUSH for the pressure of resume building would be my last option.</p>
<p>Btw my S is a HS Soph and taking AP Bio and AP Calc BC. He wanted to take WHAP (AP World Hist) but I persuaded him to drop it for balance. He IS a history kid and the school even made an exception to their required courses (Chem H), allowing him to drop this class with the promise that he will take AP Chem next year, so that he can have a free period to enjoy his friends, catch up on debate prep and homework, and still be able to compete in golf. Even then he still goes to bed around midnight every night.</p>
<p>High school is not supposed to be hell, and blood and tears are not a good way to grow up. Your child will get to a college that meets her needs and challenges her, and she will have a satisfying career. APUSH is not a condition for a successful life.</p>
<p>mizumom-thank you for your post. It really helped put all this into perspective. I too have a child who was accepted EA to MIT and EA to Harvard but this was a few years ago. This child was also not a history person but took the AP US history class because that's just what was expected. Like your daughter, this was the only B+ on the HS transcript. </p>
<p>As this was quite a few years ago the AP US History teacher in the HS has changed. Had my first child been exposed to this teacher as a freshman there would be no way AP US History would even be considered. </p>
<p>My dilemma is not having my child kill herself at the expense of her other classes. Since she can take AP Stats next year if she chooses (this was not an option for other child as the class was not offered) I feel that this would be a better option for her considering her interest in math. My older child actually told me that if younger D wants to go into any of the social sciences then AP Stats would be much more useful than AP History. </p>
<p>Our HS does not allow any AP course to be taken until junior year and then it's only AP US history. With departmental approval, AP Stats may be taken also. No AP sciences allowed until senior year after you have completed Chem, Bio, and Physics.</p>
<p>I still have more convincing to do with sophomore though!</p>
<p>mizumom: Well put and I concur, as both parent and teacher, with what you say. Know thyself and if it gets so hard that learning is no longer fun then it is too much.</p>
<p>I can offer a slightly more moderate viewpoint...does AP Stats look as good as AP US? No, it doesn't. If you and your daughter believe that she can manage a B (not even a B+) in AP US and get no more than one other B next year (without seriously stressing her out), than I would strongly suggest going for it. BUT, if you really think that it will drive her nuts (and it kind of sounds like you do), it's not worth it. In that case, though, I wish that your D could take an AP science course, but it sounds like she can't...could you try to petition to get her into one of the AP courses that she has already taken the prereq for? At my school, we take Hon. Bio freshman year, Hon Chem sophmore year, and then Junior year if you want you can take AP Chem or AP Bio (Hon. Physics is also offered junior year). That would be a better option than AP Stats, which is...not generally considered that great. </p>
<p>AP History is tough. If you are naturally good at/interested in history, it's not that bad--I could get A's without ever taking notes and reading the book right before the tests. I'm not saying that to brag--that's just the way it is for me. So, all I had for homework was smaller assignments (Question sets that could still take 45 minutes) and essays every couple of weeks. As a good tester and a good writer, it was easy for me. But if you had to study hardcore and take notes...it would be a pretty huge amount of tedious, tedious work. </p>
<p>It is a little better for your daughter because her HS school offers an Honors US History course, which my HS school does not offer. Since US History is a graduation requirement, kids who opted out of AP US and took regular US were taking a HUGE step down at my school and I think that that would be disadvantageous coming out of my HS. But that doesn't seem to be the case at her HS. Another reason not to take AP US, in her case.</p>